"North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance
consisting of the United States, Canada, and 14 other Western countries [since
this publication, 5 other countries have joined NATO, making 19 member states
in all: see links below.] The 14 countries are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,
Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Formed in 1949, NATO was set up largely to
discourage an attack by the Soviet Union on the non-Communist nations of Western
Europe. After World War II ended in 1945, an intense rivalry had developed
between Communist countries, led by the Soviet Union, and non-Communist nations,
led by the United States. This rivalry became known as the Cold War. In 1955,
the Soviet Union and Communist nations of Eastern Europe formed their own
military alliance to oppose NATO. The Soviet-led alliance was called the Warsaw
Pact. NATO was established not only to discourage Communist aggression but
also to keep the peace among former enemies in Western Europe. In World War
II, for example, Italy and Germany had fought most of the other countries
that later became NATO members. In forming NATO, each member country agreed
to treat an attack on any other member as an attack on itself. Militarily,
the United States was--and still is--the alliance's most powerful member,
in part because of its large supply of nuclear weapons. The NATO countries
believed that the Soviet Union would not attack Western Europe if Soviet leaders
thought such an attack would trigger war with the United States. NATO's policy
is known as deterrence because it is designed to deter (discourage) an attack.
NATO's purpose, however, has been less clear since the Warsaw Pact and the
Soviet Union were dissolved in 1991. Organization. NATO has a civilian branch
and a military branch. The civilian branch includes the North Atlantic Council,
the highest authority in NATO. The council consists of the heads of government
of the NATO members or their representatives. A secretary-general heads the
council. A European has always been chosen for this post. Decisions of the
council must be unanimous. NATO's military branch includes three commands:
Allied Command Atlantic, Allied Command Channel, and Allied Command Europe.
Allied Command Europe has traditionally functioned as the heart of NATO. Its
commander has always been a U.S. general. NATO's military commanders report
to the organization's Military Committee, which reports, in turn, to the North
Atlantic Council. The Military Committee consists of the military chiefs of
staff or other representatives of the NATO nations. History. NATO was formed
as a result of the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed by 12 countries
on April 4, 1949, in Washington, D.C. The 12 countries were Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
the United Kingdom, and the United States. Greece and Turkey joined NATO in
1952. West Germany joined in 1955. Germany replaced West Germany as a NATO
member in 1990, when West Germany and East Germany were united. Spain joined
NATO in 1982. During the Cold War, NATO helped maintain peace in Europe through
its policy of deterrence. But it also experienced disagreements among its
members. The most troublesome involved nuclear weapons. United States officials
generally insisted that NATO rely on nuclear weapons to deter a Soviet attack.
Some people in NATO countries, however, opposed the use of these weapons.
Also, European countries occasionally doubted that the United States would
actually use nuclear weapons to defend Europe. Their doubts were based on
the fact that the Soviet Union also had a powerful nuclear force. For these
reasons, Britain and France built their own nuclear weapons. In 1966, France
pulled its troops out of the NATO military command, though it remained a NATO
member. Before France withdrew its troops, NATO's central office had been
in Paris. In 1967, the organization moved its headquarters to Brussels, Belgium.
NATO's biggest crisis followed the breakup of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet
Union in 1991. The Soviet Union broke apart into a number of independent states.
Most of these states--and the Soviet Union's former allies in Eastern Europe--rejected
Communism. Some people felt that without its traditional Communist enemies,
NATO had lost its purpose and should be dissolved. Some NATO leaders proposed
offering membership in NATO to such former Warsaw Pact lands as Poland, Hungary,
Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and even Russia. Russia, the largest of the former
Soviet states, had proclaimed itself the Soviet Union's successor. Other NATO
leaders thought that bringing former enemies into NATO would make the alliance
meaningless. Still others worried that offering membership to former Soviet
allies, but not to Russia, might lead to a dangerous conflict with Russia.
In an attempt to resolve the uncertainty about NATO's future, the alliance
began the Partnership for Peace program in 1994. More than 20 countries joined
the program, including Russia. Most of the other countries that joined were
Eastern European nations. The program provides for joint military planning
and exercises with NATO members but does not involve formal NATO membership.
In the mid-1990's, NATO took military action against Bosnian Serb forces to
help end a civil war in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
NATO members had feared that the war might spread to other countries. The
Bosnian Serbs were fighting the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina. NATO's action
increased tension between NATO and Russia, a traditional ally of the Serbs.
In late 1995, the Bosnian government and the Bosnian Serbs agreed to a peace
treaty, and NATO troops began to replace United Nations troops as the peacekeeping
force in Bosnia." -- World Book Encyclopedia, CD-Rom edition, 1997.